BLURB:
He found the boat in late afternoon, on a February day as cold and dry as it gets in Maine. That’s how the adventure began for Mikael Larson, ex-Army, relatively new sheriff and unattached man in a small town. Starting uneventfully at home, by the time he walked into the station, the day turned weird on the way to unexplainable and a lifetime of love satisfied in death.
EXCERPT:
It was Valentine’s Day night and he blew off the idea as Cupid playing tricks on him. Tempting him to find love again. But, that’s all it was, a fantasy. Loving again was too soon. Not after the breakup with Paula. Maybe four months after a long-term relationship dissolved was more than enough time to get back to dating again for some men, but not him. The so-called love of his life didn’t want to follow him to the ends of the earth or even to Maine when he told her his plans to apply for the position. She refused to leave Alabama. “I have friends and family here. I’m not going to some town without a mall and freeze my ass off to boot.”
That was the whole crux of the matter in the end. She liked to shop, and shop and shop. The last he heard, she hooked up with a high-powered attorney in Birmingham who could give her everything she wanted. Enough lonely nights had been spent pining for Paula.
As he viewed the angel-on-earth with awe—the high cheekbones, straight nose, heart-shaped face—his throat went dry. His ex-girlfriend never looked that beautiful sleeping, or any other woman he bedded, for that matter. Something appealing, seductive and outright helpless had him all twisted inside. Suppressed passion? Him or her? Both? He burned for her and if his growing erection was any indication of how the mere sight of the woman affected him, what would she do awake? Her mouth fell open slightly as she rolled to her side, and it took enormous amounts of self-control not to lean over and kiss her rosy full lips. Time seemed to slow and the image of him stripping her naked again ran through his mind.
He shook off the haze clouding his brain to view the sleeping beauty in his bedroom. He couldn’t stop the low groan that shuddered up from his chest as he raked his gaze along the curves of her concealed body. He began to imagine his palms running across her breasts, pausing to rub the pink-tipped nipples until they hardened like pebbles. He wanted her, to caress the curves of her wet and willing body. He imagined dragging his mouth over hers, kissing with passion as his hard cock plundered her soft pussy over and over until they were both hot, sweaty and satisfactorily exhausted.
Damn it! What am I thinking? Disgust hit him square in the face. Had he gone too long without sex that he’d force his attentions on a woman he didn’t know? Lusting after a helpless woman sleeping in his bed was crazy. He needed to get out more.